


Exhaustion

by Katrina



Series: Genprompt Bingo [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23803099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katrina/pseuds/Katrina
Summary: Zack discovers that even SOLDIERs can get tired.
Series: Genprompt Bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714927
Kudos: 9
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18





	Exhaustion

**Author's Note:**

> For Exhaustion square of genprompt bingo card.

Even as enhanced as he was, Zack discovered that he could still run out of juice. It took longer, ages longer. He could go at a pace for hours that would leave regular people dropping after just a half hour or so. All SOLDIERs could do that. It was built into them. One SOLDIER was as good as a hundred, a thousand regular fighters. 

They were supposed to take a beating and keep on going. 

Zack could do that. He was a SOLDIER First Class, after all. Had been one for years. But he discovered that even he had limits.

Being on the run was tiring. He couldn’t imagine it before, but it was difficult to get good rest when you were busy making sure that people didn’t sneak up on you and murder you in your sleep. Or worse. 

And there was a worse now. 

Before, he figured getting killed was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to you. Then Angeal had used Zack as a tool in his own suicide. That had been even harder to bear than the thought of his mentor being dead. Angeal being dead was bad. It still made him ache in ways that the man had a hard time processing. But being forced to be the tool that killed the other man. 

That was the one thing he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive his teacher for. As much as Zack missed that strong, steady presence, even as he had stepped up to take up the same role, there were some things that couldn't be forgiven. Being put into that situation was one of them. 

A new worst situation had turned up over the years. Being betrayed by your own as treated as something to be owned, to be played with. That was a worst case situation. For him, and especially for Cloud. Even after their escape, the blond didn’t do much. He walked, stumbled, along beside Zack when the other directed him. He stayed where he was put. But there was nothing really awake in those green eyes.

Those eyes had been blue once. Zack wondered if they would be again.

He really hoped they did. That Cloud would come back to himself and be the little shitkicker that Zack remembered before. 

But that was only something to hope for right now. Currently, he was busy keeping them both alive. Sure, Zack could have left Cloud behind somewhere, but that wasn’t something he was really capable of. Zack had, for better or worse, never been able to leave behind people he cared about. He was even heading to Midgar, the worst place to head, because he had someone there.

He had seen Aerith’s letters. She may not even be there anymore. But he had to hope, and he wanted to check on her. She was one of the best women he had ever met, and he thought she and Cloud would get on smashingly. 

Once they met and Cloud woke up. It would be great. They’d probably spend all their time picking on him. 

Zack couldn’t wait to see it. 

And, then, maybe, he’d be able to get some sleep. To get past this bone deep tiredness that dragged at his bones. He had no idea if it was due to lack of rest or something darker.

Four years. Four years of who knew what done to him and to Cloud. Too much time in Mako messed up the brain. Messed with memories. Though some of those were coming back in dreams. More than once, Zack had snapped out of a fugue state, blinking to awareness in just too warm sunlight, not a green and body temperature glow. Those times he had flashes of what had happened before.

Not that this would stop him. Zack shifted Cloud upwards again, smiling to himself. “Come on, dawn isn’t here yet. Little longer, then we’ll find a place to sleep for a bit.”

He was exhausted all the time, but Zack wasn’t going to let it slow him down.


End file.
